MARY Berry has gone behind the scenes at Downton Abbey to cook for the real-life Lord and Lady of the manor.

Mary Berry visited the 8th Earl of Carnarvon and the Countess at Highclere Castle

The queen of cookery inspected the kitchens of Highclere Castle and Lady Carnarvon even rustled up some dishes for her approval.

The former Great British Bake Off judge visited the stately home in Newbury, Berkshire, for her new BBC series Mary Berry’s Country House Secrets.

As Mary, 82, baked a tomato tartlet with a lamb dish, Downton devotees will not recognise the kitchen – the on screen one in the drama is filmed from a studio in Ealing, west London.

Lady Carnarvon, married to the 8th Earl of Carnarvon, was apprehensive about cooking for the TV culinary supremo.

BBC

Mary Berry’s Country House Secrets will be screened on BBC One later this month

It was amazing having Mary Berry here cooking with us

Lady Carnarvon

“It was amazing having Mary Berry here cooking with us,” she said. “Mary and I were cooking from some of the recipes from my cookery book, but when you are on camera with the one and only Mary Berry I kept thinking, ‘Oh goodness, I’m going to mess it up’.”

And the Countess admitted she was more nervous meeting Mary than when she saw acting royalty Dame Maggie Smith during the making of Downton, where she played the Dowager Countess of Grantham in the hit BBC series.

Lady Carnarvon added: “Mary complimented my cooking but I was so nervous. I suppose I have met a few icons in Downton, including Dame Maggie Smith.